When the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin

Summary from Goodreads:

Pinmei’s gentle, loving grandmother always has the most exciting tales for her granddaughter and the other villagers. However, the peace is shattered one night when soldiers of the Emperor arrive and kidnap the storyteller.
Everyone knows that the Emperor wants something called the Luminous Stone That Lights the Night. Determined to have her grandmother returned, Pinmei embarks on a journey to find the Luminous Stone alongside her friend Yishan, a mysterious boy who seems to have his own secrets to hide. Together, the two must face obstacles usually found only in legends to find the Luminous Stone and save Pinmei’s grandmother–before it’s too late.
A fast-paced adventure that is extraordinarily written and beautifully illustrated, When the Sea Turned to Silver is a masterpiece companion novel to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and Starry River of the Sky.

Confession:

This was my second favorite book cover of 2016.  You have to open up the cover to really appreciate it and it’s intricacies.  I haven’t been able to find an artist’s name for the cover or the illustrations so I am assuming that Grace Lin did all of them, and the ones in the book are just as marvelous as the one on the cover. This book is the third in a collection of novels.  I’m not calling it a series because the books can stand alone, although if you read all of them you can find the story that threads it way through them.  Grace Lin is such a wonderful storyteller, her writing is magical and flows so smoothly that it really keeps you riveted to the story and the characters.  I loved Pinmei and her grandmother, and how brave they both were in the face of the unknown and the many dangers on their journeys.  Yishan is also a beautiful character, richly drawn with a few tricks and secrets up his sleeve.  If you have not read the other two books, I highly recommend that you do before diving into this one.  I listened to the audiobook for the first one when it came out and really liked it, but because of the beautiful illustrations in the books, I really recommend reading them.

Grace Lin also made videos for these books and here is the one for this book: